curiosity

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that if I’m avoiding a task, I can usually work up the momentum I need to approach it if I first spend time doing what I actually want to do.

sometimes i think we’re all a little scared of stillness because it doesn’t declare its value. it doesn’t look productive. you can’t post it. it doesn’t come with a dopamine spike or a pat on the back. but that’s precisely why it’s necessary. stillness is where the data of your life finally turns into meaning.

i’ve been experimenting with what i call “deliberate inefficiency.” no timers. no productivity playlists. no tracking. just letting things take the time they take. folding laundry without a podcast. making coffee without answering emails. sitting in silence that doesn’t immediately demand to be useful. it feels awkward at first — like you’ve... See more

when you stop trying to optimize your day, time changes texture. hours stop feeling like something to spend and start feeling like something to inhabit. you realize that most of your stress wasn’t from being busy — it was from constantly narrating your own busyness. the brain loves to document improvement. but the soul, for lack of a better word,... See more

and the irony is that most of us weren’t like this as kids. we didn’t optimize playtime; we didn’t schedule curiosity. we just wandered until something felt interesting. maybe that’s what adulthood quietly kills — the ability to do something without folding it into a bigger plan. optimization feeds the illusion of progress, but often it just strips... See more

we tend to go through a type of exhaustion that doesn’t come from overwork, but from working without wonder. it’s the fatigue that sets in when you’re chasing achievement for its own sake — when everything you do is measured against how it looks, what it yields, or how quickly it moves you forward

Build a question journal . We’re trained to only collect the answers—we highlight passages, write neat summaries with the key takeaways. But the real archive of thought is in the questions you haven’t answered. Try keeping a small notebook or even a page in your notes app where you only write down questions. Don’t pressure yourself to answer them,... See more

Resist the shame of not-knowing . Instead of seeing what you don’t know as a dead end, treat it as an entry point. Every gap in your knowledge is a chance for you to learn something new. It’s normal to feel self-conscious around people who know more than you. But expertise isn’t a wall between you and them, it’s more of a map of questions they’ve... See more

The “stupid” surface-level question is often our doorway to the deeper, “smarter” ones.

Smart small . Ask one “dumb” question a day and follow it somewhere inconvenient. Don’t search it up immediately, don’t try to shortcut to the neat answer. But let it hang there in your mind, try to determine the answer for yourself and then go deeper into the... See more